Between Badaru and the pact with Jigawa people

When he assumed the mantle of leadership in May, 29th this year, Governor Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar promised to run a government that is transparent, responsive, and judicious in the use of available resources. He vowed to run a government that will be bold in decision-making to improve the life of the common man in Jigawa […]

When he assumed the mantle of leadership in May, 29th this year, Governor Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar promised to run a government that is transparent, responsive, and judicious in the use of available resources.
He vowed to run a government that will be bold in decision-making to improve the life of the common man in Jigawa State, regardless of whose ox is gored.
The first pledge he made was to run a government that puts the demands of Jigawa people first; that will ensure any single kobo expended will be100% of benefit to the majority of the people and not the minute and powerful godfathers. He promised to provide a level playing field in all his endeavors as a governor in terms of his appointments, decisions and management of public funds.
Over 100 days after, all his promises have come to fruition as evident in the quality of aides and commissioners he has chosen and sworn into his cabinet. This is significant, in view of the fact that a government that is populated with incompetent and visionless aides is the beginning of a failed government at inception.
To tackle what he called an embarrassing recurrent expenditure imbalance that stood at an alarming 70% during previous administration, with a continuous growth of 10% per annum before now, he introduced measures that reduced non-essential expenditures in governance. These non-essential expenditures that hitherto took overhead cost alone to 74% in previous governments, was slashed to less than 40%. Before his coming, recurrent expenditure would have risen to N32.4bn by 2017 and overhead cost has already risen to N18.7bn from a paltry N16.1bn in 2007 and N10.7bn respectively. This unsustainable trend is in direct conflict with the capital and other developmental sector of the state’s budget, according to the governor himself.
Let it be reminded that the present administration inherited an unbelievable debt of over N117bn in external and local debts – a liability that will take the state over 30 years to repay – along with the consequences of continuous underdevelopment and retardation. Despite these calamitous decisions by the past administration, this administration continued to introduce measures that have already placed the state on the path of sustainable development, prudent management of resources and commitment to quality life for the majority of the people of the state.
Few months old, concrete alignments, memoranda of understanding and decisions have already been taken by the administration to place the state among the best in terms of job creation, management of meagre resources and good leadership and governance. These measures are creating a local economy base that will eventually bring in a self -sustaining model for the development and growth of the agricultural sector in the state.
Already, an agreement signed with the Dangote Group will see to the investment of over US200m with the capacity to generate an estimated 20,000 direct and indirect job opportunities to the teeming youths of the state. This same model will see to the development of the sugar sector, gum Arabic and sesame seeds; resources that are in abundance in the state and could be used to improve the living standard of the people of the state. This agreement has opened vast opportunities in the agricultural sector with related vocational education that has started providing the human capital required by the anticipated surge in Agribusiness and related activities in the state. Already, various existing agricultural institutions, including the research institute in Kazaure and others are being repositioned and strengthened in collaboration with investors to ensure adequate local content protection at all levels.
This is part of a multi-pronged approach to solving the problem of youth unemployment and opening up the economy to private sector driven opportunities in small scale enterprises, processing and entrepreneurship as promised by Governor Muhammadu Badaru since his assumption of power.
The state government has also started taking full advantage of the planned liberalization of the solid minerals sector in the state through a soon-to-commence partnership with relevant federal government agencies, to ensure detailed mapping and validation of the vast mineral resources, with a view to attracting investments in that area and improving the living condition of the people of Jigawa State.
Also, despite the dwindling oil revenue, the state governor has been able to save over N700m monthly from hitherto unsustainable expenditures on overhead cost and other expenditures. Confidence in leadership has now returned to the state with visible community participation efforts to support the vision and direction of the administration. The civil service is another institution that has since been redirected to be able to provide the platform for the objective realization of the state government’s programmes and policies through teamwork and dedication to duties. Leakages and unwarranted expenditures that were the hallmark of the service before have now been curtailed, in line with the governor’s vision of stopping waste and zero tolerance for corruption. In his effort to ensure the fulfillment of all campaign promises, the governor has already taken measures that have freed additional resources for development and social services. Measures, such as combining the cost of control and a sustained increase in internally generated revenue have since been upped to significant levels in the fiscal and financial day-to-day running of the state.
All these are pointers to the foundation laid for a sustainable and economically viable state that will become an example to other states in the federation within the next few years, God willing.
Nagado wrote from No. 2 Wuye Finance Quarters, Abuja and can be reached
[email protected]